THERE’S an old joke about a journalist who saw a very old man at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. He was resting on his cane for about 30 minutes in prayer.
The intrigued journalist asked: “How long have you been coming to the wall and praying?”
“For about 60 years” he replied.
“That’s truly amazing,” said the journalist. “And what do you pray for?”
Without hesitating, the old man replied: “I pray for peace amongst Jews and Muslims, tolerance between Christians and non-Christians, I pray for hatred to end and for all children to grow up in safety and peace.”
“Awesome,” said the journalist, adding: “And how to you feel after doing this every day for 60 years?”
The old man drew a deep breath and replied: “Honestly, like I am talking to a wall!”
The tiresome treadmill of peacemaking in Northern Ireland can feel like talking to a wall too.
As can getting above the rhetoric about reforming the economy.
As proven by the RHI mess, no-one takes any responsibility for failure. There’s no actual accountability. There are no consequences for failure to deliver.
Northern Ireland has a Teflon form of administration. Nothing sticks.
The electorate continues to return politicians who actually oversee these calamities.
There wasn’t a single government department which did not fail during the most recent period of devolution.
It’s little wonder that even with health and social services at breaking point, there’s no widespread public clamour or street protests demanding a return to devolution. The public is more disillusioned and demoralised than angry.
Over the past three years, to a greater or lesser extent, each of the previous executive ministers failed. Some more than others.
And the public have simply learned to suck it up.
The political and administrative classes in Northern Ireland demonstrate very little initiative or creativity. There’s loads of shoulder shrugging, finger pointing and blaming others.
Last week, Sir Michael Lyons revealed a rather scathing report into Invest NI. Basically saying there was “considerable room” for improvement in leadership, structure, operations, control and public accountability within the organisation.
In the real world that is a capital ‘F’ in failure.
The criticisms were spread across every aspect of Invest NI, from the board to senior managers to basic operations and communication with stakeholders. It talked vaguely of “unhelpful” interference. The chief issue appears to be one of leadership – or lack of it.
Remarkably, the panel concluded that Northern Ireland needed the agency – albeit with better focus, output and leadership.
The department which sponsored the report says it will sit down with the board of Invest NI. The Invest NI chair and board responded with a slick video saying they were “determined to transform the organisation, building on its strengths”.
The system of governance in NI needs to be more robust in holding organisations to account.
How many times has the Audit Office issued incredibly damning indictments of organisational and financial failure within government departments and public bodies, only to see those reports get buried in dust?
Departments and public bodies seem quite happy to make a statement of remorse, take a slap on the wrist and endure a few days' bad PR. Sometimes, there’s no remorse. This can’t continue.
Nor can British government’s foot-in-mouth approach to Anglo-Irish diplomacy and the art of negotiations with political parties.
The farce over the the vetoing of Mary Lou McDonald in the recent talks with the British foreign secretary was clumsy, unnecessary and futile. If anything, the incident garnered more sympathy for Sinn Féin.
And it overshadowed a reasonable proposal by the SDLP to elect a speaker and get a semi-functioning assembly up and running.
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson asked: “Who really leads Sinn Féin at Stormont?” It was a rhetorical question.
The same question could be asked as to who really leads political unionism. And that’s not rhetorical.
But find me a wall – I need to talk to it.
